I think I'm moving - my site;)

I'm trying out a new blog at wordpress.com. So click here to go to the new and improved "adventures in motherhood".

Ready for Kindergarten

Ever since Ethan started needing his hair cut (at about 2-yrs-old) I've been the one doing the cutting. This started as a necessity because he literally freaked out anytime I took him anywhere to get his hair cut. So I started giving him "buzz cuts" like his Dad and it's worked out pretty well. A few weeks ago it was "haircut time" and Ethan told me he wanted to grow his hair out a little bit. I'm OK with this, so I trimmed it up best I could and let him go on his way. The past few weeks Abby's hair has been driving me crazy and I finally got around to making an appointment at Sheer Madness yesterday to get it cut. We were on our way and Ethan said "Mom, can I get my hair cut there also?" I looked at his terribly bushy hair which is growing out from a buzz cut and decided indeed a haircut might be a good idea since he is starting kindergarten this week. He sat in the yellow hummer at Sheer Madness and informed the stylist "I want it spikey". Above is the result. It looks pretty cute (I know I should probably say handsome, but he's just so darn cute I can't help myself;) and it should since he conned me into styling gel that was $13.50 to achieve his "spikey look". I was feeling brave and since Ed was with us we ventured out to get school shoes after the haircut. Shopping for shoes with Ethan is one of the outings I dread most because he HATES to try anything on, but he was feeling cooperative and we found a pair pretty quickly. Abby also scored a pair of shoes since Shoe Carnival was having a buy one get one half off sale. Now we're all ready for school to start.

We've spent the rest of the weekend just trying to stay cool. It's 10pm here and still 90 degrees! There's not much relief in sight as it's supposed to be 100 degrees tomorrow. Have I mentioned I hate hot weather? We have been hibernating in the AC as much as possible and going to the pool in the evening. I'm soooooo ready for fall! Speaking of - I've started to see signs of Halloween at the stores, and that makes me a very happy person:)

Unofficially Employed

For the first time in 2 years I think I actually have a paying job! Tonight I went to an informational session about working for weight watchers and the territory manager unofficially offered me a position as a leader! She said she'd contact me next week with more information, so I guess Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's off to work I go:) Actually I'm pretty excited about this because I can work part time doing something I really enjoy but have a schedule flexible enough to still spend time with the kids.

I've been gone for one reason or another almost every night this week, so Abby was really happy to see me when I got home from my meeting tonight. She climbed right up in my lap, snuggled in and said "Mommy, you are my best snuggler". Too cute. The response I got from Ethan was not nearly as endearing. He said "Mom, you smell funny". I'm not sure what's up with his nose lately, but everyday this week he's told me I smell funny. I'm starting to get a complex about the whole thing. Ed assures me I don't have a funky smell, but still it's not a very nice thing to hear everyday from my 5-yr-old. I'm choosing to ignore his comment and focus on being the best snuggler - because that makes me smile:)

Biding my time

School starts one week from tomorrow. Only 7 more days. The first thing on my list when Ethan is at school and Abby is napping is to "hoe" out Ethan's room. Abby's is next on the list once she starts school (August 28th). Their rooms have been driving me insane all summer, but I can't actually clean out their rooms with them helping. Ethan inherited the pack rat gene from his father and the minute he sees me throw something away he digs it out of the trash. He's learned to look in the trash can when we're cleaning to make sure I haven't sneaked something out of his room. Imagine his dismay when today I walked into his room (and by walked I mean tripped over all the toys laying on his floor) and we both heard a big "CRUNCH". Underneath his rug which was buried in toys was the Etch-A-Sketch. Lets just say you can't step on the screen of an Etch-A-Sketch and expect it to be functional. On a positive note we got to see all of the metallic powder and drawing apparatus inside the Etch-A-Sketch so now we know exactly how it used to work ("used to work" is the operative phrase here). After all the tears and fit-throwing, Ethan and I cleaned his room so we can now walk through it without inflicting fatal damage on any other unsuspecting toys. I am soooo looking forward to next week and the cleaning I'll be able to do all by myself. I have a feeling our fall garage sell will be a good one!!

Chocolate!!

It's amazing how fast our weekends go by even when we don't have any real plans. We startedthis weekend on Friday by taking a tour of the chocolate factory at Crown Center with the MOMS Club. The kids loved learning about how they made the fudge and the candy maker put on quite a show for us (above pics). We all got to taste some yummy treats and came home with goody bags of fudge and chocolate treats. It was a very fun and tasty way to start the weekend!

We spent the rest of the weekend trying to stay cool. We spent a good majority of Saturday getting things done around the house and then we headed to our neighborhood pool. Tonight we went to Abby's friend Emerie's 3rd b-day party and it was full of fun! Both kids were tuckered out and are in bed sound asleep. I'm headed that direction myself soon so good night for now!!

Harper Valley PTA

I went to my first PTA meeting tonight, and ever since I've had the song "Harper Valley PTA" running through my head. It's not an all together unpleasant song, but it's getting a little annoying. Anyhow, I'm now an official suburban PTA mom. I already signed up to help with "back to school night" and to possibly be a room mother (although they aren't called "room mothers" anymore - they're now called "class coordinators"). My friend Lucy is VP of the PTA, so I have a feeling by default I'm going to be very involved in PTA. I suppose that's OK, I just hope it doesn't interfere with my blogging;)

In other news, we had some excitement at swimming lessons today. Ethan and his friend Brooke are in this class along with 4 other kids from the same family. To make a long story short, today was the first time this session they ventured to the "big pool". I really like Ethan's teacher. He is the perfect fit for Ethan - he's great with the kids but pushes them just enough. He doesn't put up with crying and whining, and will basically push them in if they won't jump. Now, this may seem cruel, but he says he won't put them in the big pool until he's sure they can swim back to the side. This worked well in the first session - all of the parents were very supportive of his teaching style and we were all there cheering the kids on once they made it into the big pool. Well, apparently the mom of the siblings in Ethan's class isn't into pushing her kids. As soon as she saw Marshall (the teacher) putting her son into the pool against his will she waddled her pregnant self (yes - child #5) over and started cussing and yelling at him right in front of the kids. It went something like this "Why in the h*## are you forcing them to do s*%t they don't want to do? I tell them not to go into the deep water at the lake and you are forcing them. I want a refund. We're not coming back." Being the diplomatic sort, I tried to explain that Ethan didn't like it at first, but now he's jumping off the diving board and loving it. She informed me "she didn't need my opinion on her kids". I beg to differ, but I was kind of afraid she might tackle me, so I didn't offer any other opinions. I do however have a feeling Brooke and Ethan will be having their own private swimming lessons the rest of the session!

Ball Pit!!

Today we took our first trip to Tunnel Town in Lee's Summit. It's a really cool place to hang out when the weather isn't cooperating (80% of the time in Missouri). There are LOTS of things to play on and in, but the ball pits were by far the favorite of both Ethan and Abby. I love this top picture where Abby's hair is flying out as she jumps in the pit. They played hard for about an hour and a half, then we had lunch at the Pirate Cafe. Lunch was OK - it took a while because they lost our order, but they did give me an extra Diet Coke so all is forgiven. Then we played for another hour and came home to relax for a while. Abby took a good nap and Ethan actually cooperated this afternoon. It's amazing what almost 3 hours of playing hard will do to those two!!

Wieners gone wild!!

We've had a crazy busy weekend!! I'll leave the rest of the gory details until later and get straight to the title of my post, as I'm sure I've got you wondering what in the world I'm talking about:) Today we finished off our busy weekend by attending the Wiener Dog Nationals at the Woodlands Race Track in KC. Seriously. The funniest part is the wiener dog races are all Ed has talked about for the past 2 weeks. When we moved here 2 years ago, the wiener dog race was the weekend right after we moved and we were buried in moving boxes, so we didn't make it to the race. Ed was very intrigued by the article in the paper and swore we were going to make it in 2006. Last year the race rolled around again and we had plans, so once again we were left out of the wiener dog mania. About a month ago, Ed came in and said "the wiener dog race is July 29th - put it on the calendar - we're going". I very rarely see my husband excited about anything, let alone a race with a bunch of little yippee dogs. So, today we went. It was very amusing on many levels. I won't go into all of them, but I can tell you that Abby LOVED it. She stood on her bench waving her little fan yelling "yeah dog races!!". I'm a little scared we might have created a little dog track addict today;) It was an interesting race - they ran the wiener dogs in between the greyhound races. Here's an article that explains it better than I can, but take it from me, it was very funny to watch to owners and the dogs running 100 yds down the racetrack at a top speed of 4 mph. Ed and the kids were so excited they all bought wieners gone wild T-shirts (in all honestly I would have bought one also, but they were sold out of medium T-shirts). My husband has declared the Wiener Dog Nationals a new "Harper Family Tradition". I'm not quite sure what to think about that!

I know nothing can top the Wieners Gone Wild, but the rest of our weekend was busy but fun. Friday night we went shopping and purchased all of Ethan's school supplies (have I mentioned there's only 18 days 'til school starts). Saturday we went to the Liberty Farmer's Market and bought corn on the cob, tomatoes, zucchini and watermelon. Ethan informed me that he's going to sell the watermelons he grows at the Farmer's Market next year. I told him I didn't think the 4 plants he had would produce enough watermelons to sell, but imagine his excitement (and my dismay) when we cut into our supposedly seedless watermelon to find it FULL of black seeds. He was so excited he wanted to harvest and plant them all to work on his watermelon crop. I think we've created a monster!!

Saturday evening my friend Lucy watched the kids while Ed and I went to the Jumpin' Catfish for dinner with my Mom and Step-Dad. My little brother was there entertaining diners with his guitar playing, so we had a nice dinner with some relaxing music.

Now I'm exhausted and ready for bed. Hopefully my dreams won't be filled with little wiener dogs:)

China

A recent conversation with Ethan:

E: Mom, sometime can we go to China?
Me: Well, China is very very far away - what do you want to do in China?
E: I want to go to one of those restaurants where you get Chinese food and the table spins around. Like on Calliou.

I guess he's been watching too much PBS. Maybe this weekend we'll go in search of a Chinese restaurant with a "spinning table". In Kansas City. Not China.

Farmer Ethan

A few weeks ago we went out to eat with my Dad and Step-Mom to celebrate my birthday. Ethan ordered fruit with his dinner and was very excited when his watermelon showed up with actual seeds (I always buy seedless). My Dad convinced Ethan to take the seeds home and plant them so he could grow his own watermelons. The very next day Ethan and Ed got out some plastic cups and planted the watermelon seeds - ever since they have been sitting in the bay window above the sink in the kitchen. This weekend I was getting really tired of looking at them and I told Ed "those are never going to grow, I'm going to throw them out". I never got around to it - or should I say I never had a chance when Ethan wasn't around. Today I was doing the dishes and I looked up to see a little watermelon seedling popping over the top of one of the cups! I took down the cups and indeed we have 4 little watermelon seedlings growing.

The first thing he said was "Wow - I have to call Pops". After that he looked at me and said "so when will we get watermelons?" I guess we'll be transplanting the seedlings to a pot soon to see if they keep growing!

Public Service Announcement - Please double check the refrigerator door

I was awakened this morning by Ed shaking me asking "when was the last time you were in the refrigerator?" This may seem like an odd question, but I have a habit of getting up in the middle of the night and getting a diet coke. However, last night was not one of those nights - I hadn't been in the fridge since about 10pm. The next question this morning "do you have the temperature display set on Fahrenheit or Celsius?" Never a good question. Apparently I didn't get the refrigerator door shut all the way last night. Ed got the milk out this morning to have his cereal and the milk was warm. Not room temp - WARM. So he checked the temperature display and it was a toasty 52 degrees Celsius (125.6 degrees Fahrenheit!). The door was cracked open last night and the light stayed on - heating eveything in the fridge - especially items on the top shelf where the light bulb is located. It was very painful for me to throw out everything perishable - including 4lbs of chicken and 2lbs of lean groun beef I was thawing to grill tonight. Abby and I had to make a trip to the store to replace everything - not a fun way to start the day. So tonight - check your refrigerator door! I know I will be.

Stinky crocodile

We originally bought this crocodile for Ethan - it's a game where you take turns pushing down the teeth and one of the teeth randomly causes the crocodile mouth to snap shut. Abby has taken over possession of the crocodile, but she has a love/hate relationship with the critter. Every afternoon after nap she drags out the crocodile and begs me to "play crocodile" with her. When I finally sit down and agree to play she looks at it and says "no, it scary - lets play a different game". Every day this is our post naptime routine. Lately she's started just playing with the crocodile. The other day I found her trying to feed her stuffed dog to the crocodile. When I asked her what she was doing she informed me the crocodile was hungry (she has a whole bin full of kitchen play food and she chose to feed him the dog - I don't even want to think about what that means). Today after nap she carried out the crocodile, a changing pad and a diaper. I once again asked what she was doing and she told me "crocodile stinky - he need a new diaper". I guess I can go along with this since changing the croc's diaper entertained her for about 20 minutes!

In other news, those of you faithful readers may have noticed my absence for a while. Our internet went out on Tuesday and it was not a good day in our house. The very helpful man from Time Warner came and replaced our motem on Wednesday, but then the wireless was having issues. Thanks to the hard work of my husband my internet is now up and running faster than ever. Lets just say it's been a tense week here at the Harper house - I didn't realize how addicted I am to the internet until I didn't have access.

We've had a quiet weekend with no plans to speak of. Ethan has been in rare form - so much that today I actually got out the calendar and counted the number of days until school starts - 25 for those of you keeping track. We put them both to bed early tonight and now I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. I may just go take a long hot bath!!

The Monster Truck Fairy

My nephew Dalton is staying with us for a few days. Ethan and Abby both love playing with him and they are all having a great time. We've been trying to get them to sleep for about half an hour now - and they are wound up despite all my efforts to wear them out tonight. Dalton is a funny little man - he reminds me of Marc (my brother) in so many ways. Ethan just came out of his room with one of his monster trucks and said "Dalton told me if I put a monster truck under my pillow the monster truck fairy will come tonight and leave me $5.00". This is something I could see my brother coming up with. Ethan idolizes Dalton - so now he honestly believes the monster truck fairy will be coming tonight. It may be a rough morning when his monster truck is still under his pillow and there is no money.......

Backyard Cobbler

I do believe our neighbors think Ed has gone crazy. For some unknown reason, tonight Ed decided to use some of the camping supplies he had left over and make a cobbler in his dutch oven. Now while most people would do this inside in the oven, my husband decided to make the cobbler outside. He made a fire with charcoal under the deck (the only place in the backyard where there isn't grass), put the cobbler together in his dutch oven and cooked it over the coals in the backyard. He went outside to start the fire and while he was inside assembling the ingredients for his creation the phone rang. Yep, you guessed it - it was the deck-sitting neighbors. I answered the phone to hear "did you know there's a fire under your deck? Karl is on his way over with the hose!!" I could almost hear the sound of disbelief when I told her it was OK - Ed was just making a cobbler. Once the cobbler was finished he did take some to the neighbors, so hopefully they'll overlook my crazy husband making a cobbler in the backyard since he brought a peace offering. And as much as I hate to admit it, the cobbler (apple-cherry) was pretty tasty! Lets just say I'll be doing a few extra minutes on the elliptical tomorrow due to the amount of cobbler I consumed.

We'll be eating ramen noodles for a while

But the dog will be healthy. I took Hero for his follow-up today. He's been on his thyroid meds for 2 months now and we were all convinced he'd lost weight. So I very proudly walked him up on the scale today only to see that his weight has not changed - not even an ounce! I have to say I was shocked. It went downhill from there. While we were waiting in the exam room I noticed Hero was getting another hot spot. When they went to shave the area, the Dr. checked his ears and they once again need cleaned and more meds. To make a very long story short(er), $200.00 later we are home once again treating hot spots and waiting to hear from the vet for the results of Hero's blood test. The results should reveal why he hasn't lost weight. He does get to go on diet food now, so maybe I'll start taking him to weight watchers with me after all!

The Diving Board

I just have to brag on Ethan for a minute. He's been taking swimming lessons twice a week and while I would love for him to learn to swim, I honestly enrolled him to have an activity that would wear him out a couple times a week. Combine that with the fact that I can put Abby in the daycare at the community center and have half an hour to work out and it's a win-win situation. Learning to swim was just a side benefit;) Today I decided to stay and watch Ethan during his lessons - he seems to be fully recovered from the evil virus, but I wanted to be there just in case he started feeling unwell again. I'm so glad I stayed - today was the first day they ventured to the "big pool" and jumped off the diving board. Here's the deal - I really like his swimming teacher. He's big into teaching them to do things the right way, so he doesn't get in the water to "catch" when they jump in. He stands on the side of the pool and coaches - and he swears he won't let them jump in until he knows they're ready. I guess today he decided they were ready. I was so proud of Ethan - my usually whiney drama queen went first (his choice) and walked to the end of the board and jumped right in to the 14-ft-deep pool. I have to say my stomach was doing flip-flops watching my baby jump in with no one there to "catch". He did GREAT and was so proud of himself. What a big man!!

Snugglebugs

It's been kind of a long day around here. Ethan has the virus that Abby had last week, and it's a tricky one. It causes vomiting, headache, low-grade fever and cold symptoms, but the tricky part is that it comes and goes for about a week! Just when you think they're fine, it starts all over. So, we had a long night last night. Abby was up sick around 11pm then Ethan was up every hour from midnight until this morning. Needless to say, we've all been a little tired today. After bathtime the kids were in the living room and being surprisingly quiet. This is what I found:

I asked what they were doing and the response: "we're snuggling while we watch Bob the Builder". I have to say it was a very cute ending to a very long day:)

Sad commentary on my life........

We've had a pretty quiet weekend. Today after I got Abby down for her nap I headed to the gym to work out. There I was driving along in the van - I made it almost to the community center before I realized I was singing along to the Wiggles - yes, I was singing "Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car" along with the CD and I was the only one in the van. This has happened before, but usually I notice before I'm out of our subdivision. I guess today I was enjoying the Wiggles a little more than normal. I need to get a life.

Not in the job description

One of the chores I hate most is picking up the dog poop in the yard. I dislike this chore for obvious reasons, but one not-so-obvious reason is the fact that I inevitably end up with Joe Walsh's song "Ordinary Average Guy" stuck in my head. The main problem with this is the only lyrics from the song I know are "pick up the dog doo and hope that it's hard" and I have it running through my head the entire time I'm scooping. I'm having an outdoor playgroup here tomorrow and since my husband so nicely agreed to mow the lawn in the heat, I decided it would be pushing it a bit to ask him to deal with the dog doo as well, even if it is my birthday. So I told Ethan "I'll give you $5.00 if you pick up the dog poop". His response: "Uh, that's not on my chore chart". Hee Hee. Abby's response: "I pick up the poop mommy, I put on my gloves!". Hummm. I opted to do it myself and now I have that song running through my head again. Maybe I should learn the rest of the lyrics so it's not quite so annoying.

Surprises

Ethan snuggled up in bed with me this morning with a great big grin on his face. This is the conversation that followed:

Ethan: Daddy's going to bring you home a surprise for your birthday. I can't tell you what it is.
Me: Hummm, I like surprises.
Ethan: Want me to give you a hint? If you guess I won't be giving away the surprise.
Me: OK, give me a hint.
Ethan: It's round and has petals.
Me: Hummmmm, what could Daddy bring me that's round and has petals?
Ethan: Yep, it's flowers - you guessed it!!

I won't be sharing any secrets I want to keep with him anytime in the near future;)

Slip-n-Slide (and Splash!)

A couple of weekends ago we went up to visit Ed's parents in Quincy. There isn't much for the kids to do there, so we went and bought a Slip-n-Slide to keep the kids occupied. Yesterday was the first day we've played on it at home, and Ethan uses it more as a sprinkler than a slide. Abby avoids it all together because she really DOES NOT like sprinklers. However, she loves her pool, so we got that out as well and she was happy as a clam. We were supposed to have an outdoor playgroup here yesterday, but Abby has some sort of wierd stomach thing going on, and while I suspect it's related to teeth or ears, I didn't want to take the chance of getting anyone sick. So I cancelled the playgroup and Ethan was really bummed. I told him we could still get out all the outside water toys and he perked up immediately! It also gave me the opportunity to take some fun summer-time pics which I've posted above.

Conversations with my children

The following are 2 conversations I had with Ethan and Abby today:

1. Abby: Mommy, what's in your mouth?
Me: (chewing gum) Nothing
Abby: Can I have some nothing too Mommy?
Me: No, not right now
Abby: I love you Mommy, you are my best mommy

Hummm - it's good to be the best even when I lied about the gum AND told her no;)

2. Me: Abby, are you OK? (She's had some stomach issues yesterday and today)
Ethan: I bet she has diary
Me: What?
Ethan: You know, diary - that runny poop you get after you throw up.

What's the deal with white gumballs?

One of my fondest childhood memories is spending time at my grandma MiMi's house. She had this gumball machine sitting at the end of her kitchen counter and to make it even more fun there was always a dish of pennies sitting by the machine, so we could have gumballs anytime we wanted. Even when I was in college and would stop by to visit I would still get gumballs from the gumball machine. The only gumballs I didn't like were the white ones. Inevitably I would put in a penny and out would roll a white gumball. Thanks to MiMi and her never ending supply of pennies I could just put in another penny and out would roll a gumball of another color (hopefully). I always left the white gumballs in the machine and eventually they would disappear. Either one of my cousins would take them or MiMi got tired of looking at them - I'll never know. The gumball story was one of the first memories I shared with Ed when we started dating. One year for my birthday he bought me my very own gumball machine - just like MiMi's!!

I loved the sentiment and to this day it is one of the favorite gifts he's ever given me. However, I found the appeal of the gumballs wasn't there when the machine was sitting on my own counter. I think I loved the idea of gumballs and the memories linked to the gumball machine at MiMi's house. So the poor gumballs sat in the machine for about 6 years - until last month when my own children developed an interest in the gumball machine. So off to Toys R Us we went to get brand new gumballs - we dumped out the old and poured in the new. The kids love it - they each get a piece just about every day. I've once again started putting pennies into the machine to get myself a gumball every now and then. Just about every time I decided to get one, I put in a penny and out rolls - you guessed it - a white gumball. Today I got 4 white gumballs in a row! I'm not sure what the deal is with white gumballs, but Ethan doesn't like them either. So we have to pawn the white ones off on pour unsuspecting Abby. She doesn't seem to care - she's just happy she's finally getting gum!

Bully and the Beast

I knew it was coming and in all honesty it took longer than I thought. Abby has become a bully - and her favorite target is her brother. I have to say a majority of the time he deserves what he gets, but this week Ethan has been the victim of random 2-yr-old acts of violence. Last night they were walking up the steps and she turned around and bit him on the arm. Hard enough to leave marks. Today she just randomly smacked him - numerous times. So we've started time out for Abby. She is such a different child from Ethan - even when he was very young and we first started him in time out he would yell and scream and wiggle around the entire time he was sitting in the spot. He still does this. Tonight I put Abby in time out after she once again hit Ethan. I sat her down and told her she was in time out for 2 minutes. I set the timer and sat down at the kitchen table to finish dinner. She sat there quiet as a mouse with her hands on her lap the entire time. I could see the wheels turning in her head - I think she was plotting her revenge. When her time was up I asked her if she knew why she was in time out. She said "no", so I explained to her it was because she hit Ethan and that it wasn't very nice. She looked at me - then at Ethan - and back at me and said "but he's fine Mommy and I love you". Hard to argue with that logic;)

You can take the boy out of the country........

Today after school Ethan and his friend Leyton were playing in the backyard. The phone rang and I glanced at the caller ID and noticed it was our next door neighbor. I answered the phone and this is what I heard "I don't want to be nosy, but I thought I'd let you know the boys are peeing in the dog water". Seriously. This is both amusing and disturbing on many levels. Ed and I lived on no less than 4 acres from the time we moved in together 11-yrs-ago up until we moved to suburbia in 2005. So Ed thought nothing of teaching Ethan to "pee on a tree" when he was potty training. This was fine when we lived on 4 acres, but not so much here in the ol' subdivision. It's a habit we've been trying to break for the last 2 years (apparently without much success).

I'm also still not used to neighbors watching our every move. Now, don't get me wrong, I like our neighbors and I'm happy they called so I knew to change the dog's water, but they get home from work and sit on their deck to observe the on-goings of our street until late at night. This ritual also involves beer and lots of cigarette smoking. It still amazes me that anyone can sit on a deck for that long - they have some serious deck-sitting stamina. I'm continually amazed by how things work here in suburbia - but I guess it's a good thing the neighbors were on the deck or Hero would have been drinking some pretty gross water!

"I want to be you when I grow up"

I started going to a kickboxing class about a year and a half ago - about the same time I went back to Weight Watchers to lose the rest of my "baby weight". I initially started the class because I knew if I wanted to lose the weight and keep it off I needed to exercise. I've continued with the class for many reasons - it has helped with my weight loss, but more importantly it helps me maintain what little sanity I have left after spending all day at home with 2 kids. It is my stress relief - my time away. Anyway, last night at the class there was a new woman who was there with her teenage daughter. After the class she came up and asked me "how long have you been taking this class?" I told her I'd been taking it for quite a while and she looked at me very seriously and said "I want to be you when I grow up". I had to laugh - I never envisioned being a role model for anyone when it comes to exercise. Who knew!!

I came home from kickboxing last night to find 2 very dirty and sweaty kids. They had been playing outside in the backyard - and by the looks of them they had been playing VERY hard. They wanted a drink before their bath, so I sat them at the table and gave them each a juice box. Then I turned around to check my email and heard Ethan say "Abby is using all the napkins". I turned around to find her squirting her juice box all over the napkin basket on the table. I yelled at her and she started crying and screaming like a typical 2-yr-old. While I was cleaning up the juice I looked over to see Ethan grinning from ear to ear. I asked him what was so funny and he looked at me with his sweaty hair and dirt streaked face and said "at least it wasn't me this time". Once again I had to laugh!!

Roughing it

So today I decided to download the pictures Ed took on the camp out. Here is what I found:

Apparently camping these days involves a large blow-up viewing screen for showing movies(top pic) and a Playstation for video games. Who know - maybe I'll try this camping thing next year (as long as there is running water available!!).

Happy Father's Day!!

I'm pretty sure Ed had a good Father's Day. He doesn't get too excited about holidays, so it's hard to tell for sure. He and Ethan went on their annual Toyota Land Cruiser camp out this weekend. They packed up all their camping gear and pitched a tent in the front yard of a fellow land cruiser friend's home. The people who host this event each year own quite a bit of land between here and St. Joe - and there are all sorts of trails for those who want to go "wheeling". (See - I'm even learning the terminology even if I don't do the whole camping thing). I'm always a little perplexed by what to buy Ed for holidays, but this year I think I did OK. He has been intrigued by the "Fishing Rocket" infomercial on TV. I was contemplating the wisdom of spending $40.00 on such a contraption when I stumbled across them at Target! Then they were on sale at Target - so I took it as a sign and purchased the fishing rocket for Ed for Father's Day. The boys took their new toy on the camp out - and while they weren't able to fish, they still had fun shooting the rocket portion at the campsite!

Yesterday Abby and I headed to St. Joe to celebrate Father's Day with my family. Then we came home and found 2 very tired campers! We took Ed out to Red Robin for dinner, came home and had both kids in bed by 8:30pm:) Ethan was exhausted from camping and Abby didn't have a nap due to our visit to St. Joe - so they were both pretty tired. Not that I'm complaining......

Best Friends

In many ways Abby is very much like her father. She's very laid back (as much as a 2-yr-old can be), she wakes up happy (a trait she definitely does not get from me) and she pretty much goes with the flow. However, there are other aspects of her personality that are all me. The way she talks, how much she talks and her love of animals. She ADORES Hero. After she wakes up in the morning, she goes out to visit him while still in her pajamas. She hugs him, snuggles with him and is delighted when I let him come into the house for a visit. Of course, very often these visits are not voluntary on my part. Abby can open the sliding glass door and she goes out to visit Hero just about every hour when we are home and she often forgets to shut the door when she comes back in the house. So every once and a while I will be in our room folding laundry or cleaning and in moseys Hero with Abby running behind him squealing in delight. The other day she was laying on him out on the deck and I could resist taking a few pics - they make such a cute pair:)

The Princess and the Devil

Abby has been in rare 2-yr-old form today. We had a playgroup for the 2-yr-old crowd from the MOMS Club today and the plan was to have a picnic in the backyard. Unfortunately about 15 minutes after everyone arrived in began to rain, so we had our picnic on the kitchen floor instead. The kitchen floor picnic was a lot of fun, so I think the playgroup was a success despite the rain. Our backyard is currently a soggy mess due to all the rain, but I thought we would be safe having the playgroup outside if the kids stayed in the rock play area. My daughter was "helping" me get ready for the playgroup - and when I headed to the garage to bring some toys out back, she dumped over Hero's large bucket of water and added to the mudpit - then proceeded to dig her feet into the mud - and rub mud all over her clothes. So, I hauled her up to the shower, stripped her down and hosed her off. This is a process we've repeated 2 additional times today. She has figured out how to open the back sliding door and is a sneaky little thing. She sneaks out to see Hero and before we know it she's in the mud.

She's also learned how to climb. While the 2-yr-old crowd was playing in Abby's room, someone opened the dresser drawer and took out all of Abby's clothes. I walked in her room to find clothes and toys all over the floor and Abby standing in the 2nd dresser drawer. Just a warning - never leave a room full of 2-yr-olds unattended;) They had fun and I didn't mind the mess, so all is well. However, I was relaying the events of the day to Ed over dinner and he looked at Abby and said "is Ethan going to be the good one now? Is it your turn to be the devil?" She smiled her best smile, looked at Ed and said "No Daddy, I a princess. Ethan is the devil." Then proceeded to walk around the house saying "Ethan is the devil, Ethan is the devil". It was pretty amusing.

I also determined today that I have a serious problem. I am officially a fountain diet coke addict (as if there was any doubt). This morning after I dropped Ethan off at the bus I ran to Sonic to pick up my Diet Coke. Once I got there, I had the revelation that since I was hosting the playgroup I wouldn't have a chance to leave the house again today. So, I bought 2 Route 44 Diet Cokes. Then I came home and hid one in the fridge in the garage until Ed left so he wouldn't know I bought 2. This was when I decided I have a problem. I guess atleast I'm not hiding bottles of Vodka:)

Family Picture Day

Each time we've had family pictures taken we end up with a holiday-type photo. This is usually because I want to send out Christmas cards and also has something to do with having 2 children with birthdays in November. Last year I was going to get our family picture taken when I had the kid's pics taken, but decided to wait until spring and get a family picture that didn't involve a Christmas Tree. So, today was the big day. Have I mentioned recently that Ethan is in a VERY anti-camera stage? We had to both bribe and threaten him to get him to cooperate - it was a long morning. We did end up with a few good pictures - they aren't the best we've had taken, but until Ethan is in a more photogenic mood they'll have to do!

Playing in the Rain

Abby loves to play outside on the deck - it's one of her favorite places to hang out, especially when Hero comes up to visit. So, this afternoon when it was raining, she begged and begged to "get wet in the rain". It was pretty warm outside and at the time there was no thunder or lightening, so I finally gave in and let her out in the rain. This is what she looked like when she started playing outside:

She played outside for about 15 minutes - stomping in the water and just running around in true excitement like only a 2-yr-old can. Here is a picture of her stomping in the rain - and another with Hero (I wish it wouldn't have come out blurry - it's such a cute pic). He was pretty funny - he kept looking at her like he was wondering why she wouldn't just go back inside so he could get back to the shelter of his doghouse:)

And here's what she looked like right before she came in from her escapades in the rain:

Who could resist that face??

In other news - Ethan is doing AWESOME at school - I am so proud of him. We had absolutely no tears this morning - which was a good thing since I forgot to set the alarm and didn't wake up until 7:30. He has to be at the bus stop by 8:00 - so it was a very rushed morning.

I also officially made Lifetime status at Weight Watchers today, which means I don't have to pay them anymore (Yeah!). I still have about 5 lbs to lose to get to my official goal, but it's sooooo nice not to have to continue to pay the monthly fee. I stopped by Sonic and bought myself a celebratory diet coke on my way home from the meeting.

It's been a good day:)

Summer School Update

So, yesterday was the first day of summer school for Ethan. The morning went about like I anticipated. I got out of the shower and heard this very loud crying coming from Ethan's room. I went in to investigate assuming maybe his throat was hurting. When I asked what was wrong, he looked at me with his big blue eyes full of tears and said "I don't want to go". Jeesh - he hadn't even gotten out of bed yet, and already it was starting. The rest of the morning went pretty much like the beginning. When we were ready and it was time to get in the van, I pulled out the camera to get some "1st day of school pics". The above were the result. He was ready (but not happy about it), but then took off his backpack and laid on the floor crying and telling me very adamantly he WAS NOT going. OK, time to bring in reinforcements. Ed was working downstairs, so I went down and got him. Ed pretty much carried him to the van kicking a screaming. All the way to school he cried and yelled. I looked longingly at McDonalds really wanting a diet coke, but couldn't stop for fear Ethan would make a break for it. So, we drove on past and finally pulled up to the school. Luckily once he got out of the van, he calmed down a bit. We went into the school, found his room and as luck would have it there on the list of students was one of Ethan's friends from preschool - and one from down the street. I don't think I've ever been so happy about anything in my entire life!! Once he met his teacher and checked out the room, he really calmed down. I left him playing PlayDoh with his friends and escaped to Sonic to get my very large diet coke!! Abby and I had a quiet day and then we went up to pick Ethan up from the bus. He got off very excited and reported that he had a fun day. The only mishap was leaving his new lunchbox with his new Lightning McQueen thermos at school. We got home and he informed me he was going to pick up his lunch box tomorrow and then coming home. No more school. Good Lord - I envisioned every morning in June starting like the first day..... This morning he cried and whined a bit, but got on the bus and waved and smiled at me when the bus pulled off. So, we are making progress. Tonight he asked me if he had to go back again tomorrow. I said yes (expecting a lot of complaints). With no crying or whining he asked if he had to ride the bus. Once again I answered yes - waiting for the tears to start. He looked at me, smiled and said "YES!" Holy Cow - I'm wondering if the child is bi-polar:) Honestly, I think he's enjoying his new found independence now that he's comfortable with the whole school and bus situation. I'm enjoying the quiet days - and the fact that he's zonked out in bed at night by 8:30! I love him dearly, but I think we were both ready for kindergarten!!

Take a boat, take a train, take a.....camel?

We made our first trip to the KC Zoo today. The weather couldn't have been better and we had a great time! We purchased a family pass, and I have a feeling the kids and I will be visiting the zoo quite often this summer. Abby LOVED the animals. She would have moved right in with the monkeys and taken up residence if we gave her the option. They were offering camel rides - something Ethan wanted NOTHING to do with. I couldn't keep Abby away from them - so today I took my first camel ride. It was OK - but I can tell you I wouldn't want to travel long distances by camel! Abby would have stayed on the camel all day - but at $3.00 a ride her time was limited. We also purchased the transportation pass and had access to train, boat and tram rides all day. Ethan was much happier about the transportation pass than he was about the possibility of riding on a camel:)

First Trip to the Pool

We've had such a busy day today! This morning was "bus orientation" for summer school. So, I loaded up Ethan, his friend Leyton and Abby to go and learn all about riding the bus. We learned about bus safety, watched a video and then they told us we got to go on an actual bus ride. I thought this sounded like fun. Apparently Ethan had other thoughts. We were in a room full of parents, siblings and future kindergarteners headed out to get on the bus when he threw one huge hissy fit. I'm not talking a little fit - I'm talking about screaming, crying, clinging to my leg fit. He kept yelling "I'm not going on the bus. I'm not going to school. I'm going to stay home with you for the rest of my life". He was THE ONLY one throwing a fit. To top it all off, children younger than school age aren't allowed to be transported on the bus, so I was trying to get him on the bus while I stayed in the parking lot with Abby. I really wish they would have told us this ahead of time and I would have left Abby with a friend. But anyway, there I was with a screaming, crying 5-yr-old and his friend who kept plugging his ears asking "jeesh, what's wrong with him?" and Abby saying "It OK Ethan, it only a school bus. It not hurt you". Finally some very nice lady who worked at the bus building took pity on me and offered to keep Abby so I could ride on the bus with Ethan. I felt like a terrible Mom leaving my daughter with this woman I didn't know, but I really wanted to get Ethan on the bus. So, I left my 2-yr-old in the arms of a stranger (she did great - they bribed her with animal crackers) and got on the bus with Ethan and Leyton. Ethan did eventually calm down and we practiced getting off the bus and getting picked up at the bus stop. Who knew this could all be so complex! It will be interesting to see how the first day of summer school goes....... He has such a hard time with transitions - he cried everyday for 3 months when we moved to Liberty and he went to daycare. I have visions of dragging him into a dorm room in about 13 years and having to remove a future college freshman clinging to my leg so I can leave him with his new roommate.



Then we headed over to our friend Lucy's house for a BBQ. The kids had a great time and I was able to leave them at Lucy's while I snuck away to attend my weight watchers meeting in peace (only 1 more week until I make lifetime - yeah!!). I got back to Lucy's and found she was planning to go to the pool, so I decided to keep Abby up from her nap and head down to the pool. Today was the first day it's been warm enough with no rain to go to the pool, so I figured we should take advantage of it. The kids had fun, but Ethan was done after about 45 minutes. Abby would have stayed until the pool closed at 10pm if she had a choice;) So, we came home and Ethan passed out on the couch. I guess all that screaming, crying, playing and swimming exhausted him. Abby is watching Calliou and I'm enjoying a little peace and quiet! You'll notice Abby actually has pig tails in her hair in the above pics - this morning while we were getting ready to head to the bus orientation she told me "I want pretties - you make me horsey tails?" It was too cute:)

Snow Cones and Sidewalk Paint

This week we've been struggling with getting Ethan to eat and drink and we've also exhausted most of our "quiet" activities. So what's a Mom to do? Go shopping of course! I love Target - you can find just about anything there:) I'm there often enough that I'm on a first name basis with the woman at the snack counter (can't go shopping without diet coke). So, off to Target we went in attempts to find anything that might tempt Ethan to eat/drink and activities to keep him entertained but quiet. This is how we ended up with a snow cone maker (and every flavor of syrup Target carries). Both of the kids like the process of making the snow cones, but only Abby actually eats the snow cones. Maybe once Ethan feels better he'll be just as excited about the snow cones as his sister.

As for activities, sidewalk paint seemed like a good idea. They loved it, although it kind of became "all over body paint" as you can see by the pictures. It did keep them both busy for about 2 hours - and we probably would have headed out to paint again today if it hadn't been pouring down rain.